in force against such a putting away, as against theft or murder.

It is not unusual for women fo put away, to marry other men, nay, fometimes they are portioned by the feducer for this very purpose. This fashionable way of getting rid of women, includes in it many crimes. First, It is a breach of that pofitive lawShe fhall be his wife; becaufe he bath humbled ber, he may not put her away all his days. Secondly, It is therefore a fpecies of unlawful, forbidden divorce. It is, thirdly, adultery in the woman fo put away to marry another. And, fourthly, He that marrieth her that is put away committeth adultery.

We never allow any thing to be adultery except the outward ceremony has paffed; but God's pofitive commands are not subject to the controul of human invention. It would be a folecism in philosophy, to talk of fetting the fun to the dial, and not the dial to the fun; it is as great a one in divinity, to argue, that the law of God is to be accommodated to the law of man, and not the law of man to the law of God.

Let us fuppofe for a moment, that, as it is faid to have been the cafe amongst the Spartans, theft was not to be looked upon in a fcandalous point of view, but rather allowable and commendable, if done fo dextrously, as that the perfons were not detected in the fact; Would this

fhake

hake the authority of the eighth commandment, or be pleadable before Gop as a juftification of the thief? Confider the work of Gop, that which is crooked cannot be made Strait, and who can make that ftrait which he hath made crooked? Eccl. i. 15. vii. 13.

From what has been faid, I think it may be fairly concluded:

I.

That marriage is a divine inftitution, and, as fuch, to be abided by as revealed to us by its holy and bleffed author.

2.

That those who look upon it merely as e civil contract, and therefore subject to the alteration and controul of men, have different views of it from thofe given us in the facred fcriptures.

3.

That a woman's perfon cannot be feparated from her felf; wherever the bestows the one, the other is bestowed alfo.

4.

That when the delivers her person, and confequently her felf, into the poffeffion of a man, fhe is (if not betrothed to another) by that act, infeparably united to him, so indiffolubly joined, that the cannot leave him, nor may be put her away all his days.

5.

That if thefe truths were received, as they are indeed the truths of GOD, mil

lions of women (especially of the lower fort) would be faved from ruin; for, being protected, received, and provided for as GOD's law enjoins, as the wives of those men who first enticed them, they could not be turned out upon the wide world, with the lofs of reputation, friends, and confequently all power of helping themfelves, but by ways too dreadful to think of!

Before I conclude this point, I must defire not to be misunderstood, as if I meant to undervalue or despise human ordinances; they have excellent ufe, and, in this mixed state of things, are neceffary to maintain that order and decency, which are fo neceffary for the regulation of the outward actions of men. I would rather infer their use and neceffity, than doubt of either. When I fay that the marriageService of the church, doth not constitute a marriage in the fight of GOD, I fay true; becaufe by finding no fuch fervice in the Bible, and that marriages were had and folemnized without it, I therefore conclude that cannot be it which conftitutes a marriage in the fight of God; for, if so, we must fuppofe that people before the invention of fuch fervice, were not married at all, but lived in fin; which is abfurd and impoffible. That fome fervice, or ceremony, is expedient, for many good and laudable purposes,

mast

must be allowed-as, for the public recognition of the mutual engagement of the parties to each other-to ratify their union as to inheritances, and many other laudable ends of civil fociety; and as none can live together as man and wife, without offence, unless they * submit to the ordinance of man, it ought, where it poffibly can, to be fubmitted to for the Lord's fake. 1 Peter ii. 13.

But it is a great abuse of fuch things, to put them in the place of the institution of GOD; fo that this is of no force or validity in God's fight without the other. Hence it is, that, men thinking they are not married, unless by a priest in a church, take advantage of their own villainy, and thus feduce women, and put them away at their

pleasure; whereas God's law binds them

* This golden rule of 1 Peter ii. 13. appears by the context, to relate to that obedience which we owe to the civil powers. But then the laws of civil government must not be inconfiftent with, or repugnant to, the law of GOD, for if they be, we must not fubmit to them, but rather fuffer than obey. When Nebuchadnezzer fet up his golden image, the three children of Ifrael would not obey the king's decree to worship it; they chofe rather to endure the fiery furnace. Dan. iii. 17, 18. So Daniel vi. 10. And as it is with civil, fo is it with ecclefiaftical ordinances of men; thefe must be confonant with God's word, otherwise we must act as the apostles did, Acts iv. 19. Men may make laws for the public recognition of a marriage in the fight of the world, but to ordain in what marriage hall confift in the fight of GOD, is out of their jurifdiction, and depends folely on the appointment of GOD's own law.

in

in the first instance, and declares the bond indiffoluble. So that, as to the purposes of the divine institution, if a thousand priests were to read a thousand fervices over the parties, these cannot add to, nor diminish from their union before GOD, which, as in His fight, is created by the Almighty fiat-they fhall be one flesh. This furely must be as evident, from the whole tenor of the facred scripture, as that the pouring water on a perfon, or dipping him in water, in the name of the Bleed Trinity, is the complete divine ordinance of baptifm, though no act is done, or word faid, befides.

There are no where in the Hebrew of the Old Testament, or Greek of the New Teftament, any specific names for married perfons, fuch as the English words husband and wife-but ' and man and woman -So 'Avup and which also fignify perfons of the male or female fex in general; but when coupled with pronouns poffef

yuvy,

.bis woman אשתו-ber man אישה five, as

Ο ανηρ σου thy man-ή γυνή έαυτε, his woman, they then denote the marriage-relation: but how that relation is entered into, so as to become indiffoluble on both fides, hath already been shewn; to which we may add fome obfervations on the word by which we tranflate husband, married. See Gen. xx. 3. bya nya maritata marito. Mont.; lite

rally.